Blue Jackets Sign WHL MVP and College Standout

By Bill Drake

June 7th, 2000

The Blue Jackets are slowly filling out their roster, even before the expansion draft. Two more roster spots were filled with the signings of Brad Moran, formerly of the Calgary Hitmen (WHL); and Blake Bellefeuille, Boston College (HE).

Brad Moran was this years WHL Most Valuable Player, leading the league in scoring with 120 pts, capping off his WHL career with three straight 100 pt. seasons. Moran finished 9th all time in the WHL with 204 goals, and 4th all time in playoff assists and points, 48 and 82. The Buffalo Sabres, who drafted Moran in the 7th round of the 1998 Entry Draft (191st overall), decided not to sign the 21 year old junior player, leading Mr. Breeze, Moran’s agent, to issue the following tirade to the Associate Press: “Never in my 15 years (as an agent) have I ever seen a player, and especially of Brad’s elite status, treated with such cavalier indifferent arrogance.” Why then would Buffalo pass on such an outstanding junior player, and Columbus sign him?

Buffalo did not sign him for three main reasons: his age, his physical abilities, and money. Moran is 21, playing in a league typically filled with 18 year olds; this coupled with the fact that few overage junior players go on to have solid NHL careers leaves Moran with one strike against him. The second strike is his size and skating ability. Listed at 5-11 and 175 lbs, Moran must bulk up in order to succeed at the NHL level; combine this with his skating deficiencies leaves Moran an huge hill to climb to reach the NHL. The third strike against Moran, which is not all Moran’s fault, is his asking price. Moran, read Breeze, was looking for rookie salary cap figures while Buffalo countered with an AHL salary. Perhaps that is the reason for Breeze’s tirade.

So why would Doug MacLean agree to sign a player with such deficiencies? Again the answer comes in parts. The first part has to do with Moran playing in 357 or 360 of Calgary’s regular season games and all of their 52 playoff games. Moran is a dependable and tough forward who can be counted on to play hurt, something no statistic can accentuate. The second part of the puzzle is made clearer with this quote from MacLean,”Not only is [Moran] a tremendous playmaker, but he also exhibited great leadership serving as the team captain last year and an assistant captain prior to that. We think he has great potential.” Indeed Moran has shown, while riding shotgun to Pavel Brendl, that he can distribute the puck very well. He also is a leader on and off the ice.

Moran could just be a late-bloomer. Not realizing his potential until later in life. Expansion gives Moran the ability to showcase his talents and the chance to play in the NHL. Clearly his role will change and develop as he progresses through the the minors and into the NHL but if Moran works hard he should find a spot on the Blue Jackets squad. In what role however, remains to be seen.

Earlier in the month Columbus also signed Boston College standout forward Blake Bellefeuille. “We’re thrilled about having Blake join our organization,” said Blue Jackets Assistant General Manager Jim Clark. “Other than being a very solid overall player, what drew us to Blake was the character and leadership he displayed on the ice every time we saw him. We think he’s eventually going to be a great character guy for Columbus.” Bellefeuille will need some seasoning in the AHL to become accustomed to pro play but he should turn into a decent third liner and capable penalty-killer, perhaps similar to New Jersey Devil PK specialist John Madden. Bellefeuille won the Frank Jones award, given annually to the best defensive forward in New England.